BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team tries to defeat Pac-10 opponents on back-to-back Saturdays when it hosts the University of Washington Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The game will be televised regionally on FSN and the radio broadcast will be available on the LSU Sports Radio Network, in the “Geaux Zone” at LSUsports.net and on the SEC Channels on XM Satellite Radio.
Tickets for the game are $11 for adults and as part of LSU’s “Take a Kid To The Game” weekend, tickets for youth (ages 3-12) are just $1 with the purchase of one regularly priced adult tickets. Tickets are available online at www.LSUsports.net. and beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the upper concourse ticket windows of the Maravich Center.
The same $1 ticket deal will be offered Sunday when the Lady Tigers take on UNO in the Maravich Center at 2 p.m.
Both teams are 7-4 on the season and the Tigers will be trying to sweep Pac-10 foes at home, where LSU has an eight-game winning streak dating back to last year, 6-0 this season. LSU is coming off a 67-61 win over Oregon State. Last year, the Tigers were winners over Oregon State in Corvallis before Washington was able to down the Tigers, 88-72.
“We are excited about the game against Washington,” LSU Coach John Brady said. “They are a good team and are well coached. We are looking forward to the opportunity. The team has practiced well and their attitude has been great. Certainly, our execution, concentration and rebounding need to improve, but that is just where we are as a team. I like our approach and look forward to the game.”
The week has been made even better by the break in intercession classes at LSU, allowing Dameon Mason to practice all week and he will be able to play in the game.
“He is our only senior on the team and certainly brings some experience,” said Brady. “He is going to play and it has been good to have 10 guys at practice. We have been making it with seven or eight and adding a manager and a walkon. It has been good to have 10 guys you can go up and down and Dameon is a big part of that.”
Marcus Thornton, Anthony Randolph and Chris Johnson continue to anchor the Tigers scoring, with all three averaging double figures. But Johnson will be looking to come out of a slump that saw him shut down on offense by Wichita State and Oregon State. Thornton, coming off his seventh 20-point game of the year last Saturday against Oregon State, leads the team in scoring average at 18.9 points per game, while Randolph is at 13.9 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game.
Washington Coach Loreno Romar has been switching his starters around the last few games with the exception of Jon Brockman who is averaging a double double at 18.9 points per game and 10.9 rebounds a contest.
“Washington has four starters back,” said Brady. “Brockman is their anchor around the goal. He is going to be the most physical post players that we have faced this year and he is going to be a challenge for us. They have a couple of talented guys in the perimeter. (Ryan) Appleby is a tremendous shooter. He can shoot it from anywhere. (Justin) Dentmon is a nice player. (Quincy) Pondexter played well against us last year. Our biggest challenge will be to try and contain Brockman and see if we can keep him off the boards.”
The boards are where LSU has been damaged the most this season, out rebounded in each of the last three games by double digits and for the season, opponents have 55 more offensive rebounds than the Tigers. But LSU is third in the country in blocked shots with 90, averaging just over eight a game.
LSU travels next week to Tulane (8 p.m., Jan. 2, New Orleans Arena) and Texas A&M (7 p.m., Jan. 5, College Station, Texas, ESPNU) before opening league play on Jan. 9 at home against Mississippi State.